When we embark on a faith walk with Jesus there is every chance we will face seasons of living in want! The contemporary “faith message” doesn’t always deal with this fact well, many “faith preachers” leave us with the impression that to be ‘in want’ is to be without faith. Yet, the Apostle Paul, here, is strongly suggesting that followers of Jesus should expect to have seasons in our lives where we live in plenty and seasons where we live in want! Neither of these conditions are indicators of faith they are simply symptoms of life.

The kingdom of heaven is full of ‘hidden treasures’ waiting to be found. They are not hidden so that we can’t have them, they are hidden so that we will seek them and find them. The process of seeking is vital in the life of a disciple.

Like mindedness doesn’t mean we have the same opinion on every matter of life. Our like mindedness is based on being ‘united in Christ’. The brilliance of the church is that God has brought together people with different gifts and ideas for a common cause and purpose.

The only solution to the helplessness of our generation is to call them to a radical obedience to Jesus. A Gospel that simply adds Christianity to our lives is profoundly deficient and an affront to God.

Paul’s joy was obviously NOT dependant on money, power, healing or acceptance of others. His joy came from knowing Jesus. Not a false or fabricated Jesus, but Jesus of Nazareth, God’s only begotten Son.

We don’t forget what God has achieved, or attained, in us; these are the foundations upon which He will build. We do forget the pain and hardship because they are temporal; they belong to this world and are not worthy of the next world. In the end Jesus will ultimately wipe these hardships away.

Disciples do the works of Jesus – announcing the good news of His kingdom, healing the sick, casting out demons and releasing miracles. These actions require a paradigm shift and a leap into the unknown.

Obedience sounds simple. The truth is, it’s easy to be obedient when we agree with the other person, it’s a whole different ballgame when we are in disagreement with the person to whom we are meant to be obedient. It’s at this place where real obedience kicks in.

Jesus is speaking to two groups of people here, those who hear His words and put them into practice, and those who hear His words and don’t put them into practice. The first group are able to withstand the tempest, the second group are destroyed by it.